Posted
by
Zonkon Saturday May 12, 2007 @07:21AM
from the go-get-em-kids dept.

Acer500 writes "The One Laptop Per Child project became a reality Thursday in Uruguay, as the 160 children of school number 24 in the humble town of Cardal received their XO computers. The learning tools came directly from the hands of president Tabaré Vazquez. It has become a matter of national pride that Uruguay is the first country to realize the project's goal. The target is that by 2009, every school-age child in Uruguay will have one, and an initial 15 million dollars have already been allocated to the project.
From the newspaper articles: 'The happiness of having a PC in their hands, some of them for the first time, had the kids in ecstasy, which didn't wait to turn on their computers, introduce their personal information (required the first time they're turned on), choose the screen colors, and start experimenting with them. What initially made them more enthusiastic was the possibility of taking photographs and filming each others with the included webcams.'" More information below.

According to the unofficial blog of the Uruguayan project, named proyecto Ceibal, the infrastructure for wireless is not yet in place but will be provided in the next few days by the national telco ANTEL. No photos of the event have been posted online, but you can see an institutional video on Youtube. One interesting point is that it has not yet been decided that the XO will be the laptop of choice for the entire project. Two other companies want to be considered: Intel, with their Classmate PC, and Israeli-manufactured ITP-C. In a press conference, Intel manager for the southern cone Esteban Galluzzi went as far as to compare the XO to a Pentium II, and stressed that the Classmate is able to run Windows XP. As advisor and local guru Juan Grompone stated, 'who will ultimately benefit from this is education?' This will be an interesting test to see if the OLPC project meets its intended goals of 'learning learning'. Let's hope this project is the means that will foster among some of the children the desire to learn and to tinker."

The Web in the air of CardalNear 40 niÃ±os of the Italy school they received its computers of the hand of several authorities of the government. In one week the niÃ±os podrÃ n to accede to Internet from all the points of the city

In a brief speech during the act, VÃ single zquez refiriÃ to "the importance" of the Ceibal project and asegurÃ that "cumplirÃ with the cronogram of arriving itself at 2009 to all the schools from paÃs". The agent chief executive prefiriÃ to yield its time to one of the niÃ±os, that articulÃ words that moved to the presents.

To I finish of the act, VÃ zquez was consulted by the present journalists on if to raÃz of cuts in the RendiciÃn de Cuentas it were going to be all the money for the plan. VÃ zquez asegurÃ that was not going to lack the money. "the USS 15 anticipated million estÃ n in the budget", asegurÃ the conductor of the Uruguayan government.

Under the glance of many parents, some from the windows or accommodated in algÃn rincÃn of the halls class, about 40 niÃ±os of 3Â and 6Â aÃ±o received their computers X-O. DonaciÃn of Nicholas Negroponte is of 200 units. The rest of the students of that school of cardal recibirÃ its computers in these dÃas.

AlgarabÃa to have a PC in its hands, some for the first time, dejÃ won the boys, who did not hope to ignite his mÃ quinas, to introduce their personal data (the first time that ignite it is necessary to put the one name and to choose the colors of the screen) and to put themselves to experiment with the X-O. What mÃ s entusiasmÃ was to be able to remove photos and to film themselves with webcam that come including.

The niÃ±os by this week podrÃ n to sail in Internet from the Italy school, where instalÃ a servant to provide itself with conexiÃn in the classrooms, that in the prÃximos dÃas extenderÃ to the rest of the city so that the niÃ±os can be connected to the Web dese its homes. For mbrica it utilizarÃ tecnologÃa of conexiÃn inalÃ - it does not need cables that proveyÃ ANTEL with colaboraciÃn of UTE.

Sorry, but I think the venerable fish is becoming exhausted. Here's World Lingo's version, with my own small tuneups.

The Web is in the air of CardalAbout 40 children of an Italian school received its computers by the good will of several authorities of the government. In one week the children should be able to connect to Internet from all the points of the city.

In the middle of great expectation and much joy of the children, president Tabaré Vázquez stood next to a great retinue of authorities of School #24 of the city of Cardal, which inaugurated the pilot program of the Ceibal Plan in the Italian school (in Florida). In the next few days it should be connected to Internet by means of wireless connections, in order that the students can accede to the Web from their homes.

In a brief speech during the act, Vázquez talked about "the importance" of the Ceibal project and assured that "she will fulfill herself the deadline of 2009 to cover all the schools of the country". The agent chief executive preferred to yield his time to one of the children.

At the end of the act, Vázquez was consulted by the present journalists on the matter of cuts in the budget, and if she were going to be able to supply all the money for the plan. Vázquez assured that she was not going to lack the money. "the US$ 15 million are predicted in the budget", assured the conductor the Uruguayan government.

Under the gaze of many parents, some from the accommodated windows or in some corner of the halls class, about 40 children of 3rd and 6th year received their computers X-O. The donation of Nicholas Negroponte is of 200 units. The rest of the students of that school of Cardal will receive its computers in the next few days.

The chance to have a PC in its hands, some for the first time, excited the boys, who did not hope to ignite their machines, to introduce their initial preferences (the first time that boot the machine it is necessary to put the machine name and to choose the colors of the screen) and to prepare to experiment with the X-O. What further it excited them was to be able to take photos and to film themselves with on-board webcam.

Later this week, the children should be able to connect to the Italian School, where an official arrived to provide the school with connection in the classrooms. In the next days this coverage is supposed to extend to the rest of the city so that the children can connect themselves to the Web from their homes. For this, wireless connection technology will be used, supplied by ANTEL with the collaboration provided with UTE.

Lets see. OLPC is a little less than $200 per laptop, or the Classmate PC at about $400 per laptop. Multiply it by 2 million children... more than a 400 million dollar savings! I wonder which way the more cash strapped countries are going to go?

I would love to get my hands on some of these to see how well they work as a learning tool. The price point puts them in line with many other learning tools on the market for children. The open source platform makes them much more expandable. And, as they become more widely used, the software available for them will become much more diverse and powerful. I wonder if the Intel proposed alternative includes an Operating System in the price.

Not only is it more than twice the price, the Classmate PC is vastly inferior. Let me list the ways (stats taken from Wikipedia):

-XO has a 1200x900 screen which can be flipped around (tablet style) and converted into ultra-high resolution grayscale for displaying text. The refresh rate can automatically adjust (down to 0hz) to save battery power. The Classmate PC has an ordinary 800x480 LCD.-XO has a camera. Classmate doesn't. This article shows that the kids obviously like the camera.-XO has a large trackpad that can be used as a graphics tablet. Classmate has a standard trackpad.-XO operating system interface was designed from the ground up for this purpose. Classmate uses Windows XP Embedded.-XO promotes the concept of Free software. Classmate has a freakin' Trusted Computing Module installed!

They are effectively promoting their PC as a 'real' one (vs.a plaything of the XO) because it can run XP, while the XO doesn't.

The XO is clearly a more interesting concept, though.

And there in is the reason the XO is a superior solution. All the criticism of the OLPC XO and the benevolent offers of "superior" Windows based machines with $3 OS licensing fees is based off the need of a few greedy thugs to build their markets. The objective of OLPC is not to build a market for Microsoft and Intel to sell their products and introduce developing nations to the proprietary software licensing treadmill, its about instilling the ability to learn at an early age so these children will grow up with the ability to improve their living conditions. As Negroponte has already stated "An educated and creative population is, without a doubt, the best path to global health, wealth, and peace."

While I'm sure a more expensive Windows based machine could be used for the same purpose, the initial experiments that led up to OLPC used Windows based laptops, the XO and its software were designed from the ground up to serve the specific purpose of "learning learning" while the so called superior solutions being pushed by multi-billionare corporate CEOs and the like are designed to help themselves break into new markets where their current products are simply too expensive.

These wealthy individuals who lack the knowlege and experience of the people who developed and run the OLPC should simply STFU and let the professionals do their job.

Faster processors aren't always "better." An entire generation of kids [e.g. me] grew up on nothing more than 4MHz single-issue, no cache, barely any memory systems and did just fine. When I was a teenager it was a really big deal to get my first processor running over 100MHz [cyrix].

It's purely FUD that says you need a 1000MIPS processor for an EDUCATIONAL machine.

Having not seen either LCD I can't really say which is better. I like the XO design mostly because it's supposed to be easier to read in grayscale mode. That and it uses a lot less power which is kinda important for these tasks.

To my knowledge TPM is not used for DRM sorts of thing but for anti-theft purpose since a kid carrying a mobile laptop is so vulnerable to thieves and robbers in the street.

Then I'm afraid you don't understand what TPM is or what it does. TPM does nothing at all to discourage or prevent laptop theft.

Your remark about CPU speed also misses the point. OLPC is about cheap hardware with low power consumption and no moving parts to break. 366 MHz is enough for plenty of tasks if you don't have a bloated OS with a bunch of eye candy, virus scanners, etc.

While I agree the CMPC has a faster processor and, most probably, can run Office much faster than the XO can run OpenOffice, it also draws far more power and batteries will be either heavier, more dangerous (the XO does not use Lithim on purpose) or last less. I suspect a 366 MHz Geode is quite enough for what they are aiming.

about resolution:
You must know, if you know a bit of tech, that LCD screen size matters much more than its resolution, while screen size largely determines the BOM price. What OLPC uses is either 7' or 9' LCD while Classmate PC offers both and support a variety of resolution from 800*480 to 1024*768...but all computer literate people would know a larger resolution on the 7' or 9' screen will make fonts look rather too smaller to be read or making eyeballs very painful eventually.

Really, the XO's screen is not as easy to define - it's a very different kind of LCD and it is not directly comparable to the one in front of me. The extra pixels will not make fonts smaller, unless you are using a horridly primitive font management technology. What happens with mode DPI is that your fonts get better defined.

Since the XO was designed for a very specific purpose, what OS it does run is not very important. But I think a Unix-like core is a better choice for a rugged device where running MS Office is not one of the requirements.

about trusting platform module:
I don't know why you are so freaked about TPM... like an ancient man were afraid of morden weapons. but you must be fair to understand its usage. To my knowledge TPM is not used for DRM sorts of thing but for anti-theft purpose since a kid carrying a mobile laptop is so vulnerable to thieves and robbers in the street.

The fact there is a TPM indicates it can be used for just about anything TPMs are used for. While not alarming per se, not having a TPM means it cannot be used at all. As they say, "better safe than sorry". And since the notebooks are unable to pass for a common notebook - the form-factor is very characteristic - and thus its black-market value is very low, the risk of it being stolen should very small.

I see the CMPC being used in other settings, but, dollar for dollar, the XO seems a much better value unless your requirements demand something it cannot do.

Actually, the OLPC is using a 500mhz Geode... but that doesn't really matter. The XO runs software that was specifically designed for its hardware - the software will run great on it. The Classmate will be running software designed for modern desktop PCs - for that, a 900 MHz processor and 256 megs of RAM will be dog slow.

but all computer literate people would know a larger resolution on the 7' or 9' screen will make fonts look rather too smaller to be read or making eyeballs very painful eventually.

This comment displays an utter misunderstanding of the concept of "resolution". When text resolution is increased, the text doesn't get smaller - instead, each letter is represented by more dots so that it's clearer and easier to read. It's true that Windows users occasionally have trouble getting their fonts to be larger because of poor software design, but the XO won't have this problem. As a closing thought, laser printers tend to print at 600dpi - about 36 times the resolution of a common computer screen - is the text 36 times smaller?

What you thought higher frame rates while playing Halo2 makes the Celeron the clear winner? Think again. The Geode uses 40% less power than the Celeron, your CMPC will be a dead paper weight while the OLPC will still be doing its job.

about resolution: You must know, if you know a bit of tech, that LCD screen size matters much more than its resolution

And once again, how much power does the CMPC display consume? The OLPC is.1 to 1 watt. They don't even have the specs on the CMPC site or wiki.

The OLPC runs linuxBIOS and linux which enables significant power savings features which are not available in an off the shelf BIOS + Windows/linux install.

To my knowledge TPM is not used for DRM sorts of thing but for anti-theft purpose since a kid carrying a mobile laptop is so vulnerable to thieves and robbers in the street.

WTF? I suggest you improve on your knowledge of TC, its claimed "that it will make computers safer, less prone to viruses and malware, and thus more reliable from an end-user perspective", it doesn't stop a thug from stealing it.

Unfortunately one of the side effects of TC is that the hardware and software makers get to decide what is trusted and prevent end users from doing something with their hardware and software such as say running linux or open office because they deem them as not being trustworthy.

Really I have no idea why anyone is even bothering to argue in defense of the anti-OLPC solutions, and yes they are anti-OLPC. If you look at the specs on the Classmate PC it is rated at 4 hours of use on its batteries, the OLPC is rated in DAYS. The OLPC XO is designed for a purpose, the supposed superior offerings from people who are used to marketing products in energy rich societies are not even close to what is needed in hardware and software for a project like OLPC. The only reason they are even trying is because their over inflated marketing egos have them believing they are the end all be all of technology solutions for the planet. They need to grow up.

As someone that has a XO (OLPC) I'll say that it is way better than any cheapie laptop I've seen. If it was available for retail purchase here in the US I'd buy several to pass out as gifts. The quality is great and it really has a lot to offer for such a low price tag. I mean it comes with the ability to participate in a mesh network and be connected to a normal wifi AP at the same time, has a decent built in camera, has a pad for pen input, is very durable, is very lightweight, stays cool, has a decent battery life, has features that make it usable as an ebook or handheld game, the software is custom written to take advantage of the laptop and work within its limited specs, and is just pretty damn cute. Every kid I've tested it on has loved it as have most adults. And remember that they actually plan to get production costs down to under $100 per laptop and then start distributing low-cost add-ons such as an OLPC printer. Your average cheapie laptop is not going to be the same.

That said, I can't believe they are distributing the XO to kids already. The software is not done at all. IMO the software is barely usable thus far. Work on the software is progressing pretty fast, and in fact that is why I have an unit, but I would not yet be distributing them with the software in it's current state. I hope they have easy access to the units being distributed so they can be updated as needed.

I find it interesting that Intel immediately jump in with "the ability to run win xp" as a major advantage. Leads me to ponder.

A lot has been said about the OLPC project sticking to open platforms, which may partially be a cost issue and partially an idealistic one. The real question is what is really best for the project? Sticking to open platforms, and open source or completely custom solutions, or a system that allows the use of windows xp?

I say windows and not os x, not because it's particularly better, thats an argument for a different time, but for the next question - is it better that the platform be completely open and/or custom, or that it corresponds to the most used operating system? The system that is used by a large quantity of consumers, the largest perhaps, and the platform that is the target of choice for people trying to make money of these consumers.

The real question is what is better for the students in this country. Not what is better for Microsoft, Intel or indeed Linux and the Open Source movement. Is it enough to give these students a computer, or should we be giving them a computer that gives them the potential to learn the systems in use by a majority of the world?

I guess the other side of the coin is this - if computing technology is about to find it's way into the hands of a lot of people who previously had no access to it, is that going to swell the marketplace such that what was previously a huge market share advantage could well be diluted by the choices made by this project? Every child in Uruguay is a lot of people - and its only a start. When other countries continue, the choice of operating system to learn might not seem quite as trivial as it may right now.

Windows has the problem that it makes children learn the route muscle actions required to do things. They rarely understand what they are actually doing. Windows also does not make a nice LaTeX environment, and programing on Windows is a pain. The command line on windows is crippled and you need to install Cygwin to avoid it, but by then you should have just gone with Linux.

From a practical standpoint: The OS was designed with ease of use in mind. From the demos I've seen, it does exactly what it's supposed to. Windows and all the other major operating systems are intended for general use, with loads of hardware and software to support, and as such have a huge array of things the OLPC devices will rarely need.

From an idealistic standpoint: I think it's great to provide the kids with a neutral OSS system tailored to the laptop, where they can decide for themselves later on which OS they will use. The point of the project is to provide EVERY child with a laptop. Hooking every child to a certain, commercial OS from the youngest years onward is not something a government should be doing. The kids will learn Windows, OSX and whatnot soon enough, as you did too. Not necessary at this stage, which is about giving children access to technology, not preparing them for cubicles.

It doesn't seem to get mentioned a lot, but one of the secondary aims of the project is that countries should not buy very many of the units. If they are a success, it is hoped that they will start manufacturing their own. The designs are available royalty-free, and so is all of the software. The only thing you need to reproduce it is a supply of the components, and many of these can be produced locally if there is a demand. The core ICs are about the only components that will need to be imported, and if there's enough of a need then setting up a chip fab might be in the country's best interests.

The OLPC project hasn't just been sold as an educational tool to politicians, it's also been sold as an economic one.

It doesn't seem to get mentioned a lot, but one of the secondary aims of the project is that countries should not buy very many of the units. If they are a success, it is hoped that they will start manufacturing their own.

That's interesting as an insurance (you can always make your own in case something happens with the current manifacturer).

But would you spend $300 making it on your own, or $150 buying it. Since those are targeted to poor countries, I somehow don't think they can make use of existing skill

You are not thinking on the sale of a country. Paying $300 to make your own might be better if the home-built one only needed to import $100 of parts. The rest of the money remains in the economy, and is an investment in education of workers, since you then have a workforce that is experienced in building computers and can bid for international contracts or start manufacturing home-grown designs.

You are forgetting a one very important question, namely: would the money spend at otherwise have a bigger return. It may be trendy to produce your own computers and keep as much money as you possible can circulating in your own country, it even may boost your national pride, but it will probably not be the smartest move to make. The smart move to make, in developing and under developed countries is to use the money to industrialize, namely: opening mines, building factories, building dams, building power p

The smart move to make, in developing and under developed countries is to use the money to industrialize, namely: opening mines, building factories, building dams, building power plants, building roads and railroads, these all have very much higher returns for the whole economy

Of the things on this list, building factories and power plants are directly required for building their own versions of the OLPC. Mine construction is driven by demand, and producing more things locally drives this demand, and transport infrastructure have the same impetus. The idea isn't that they will specifically create factories to manufacture OLPC machines, they will create factories (and the other infrastructure) that can build OLPC machines, but will also be used for building other artefacts of a

But its hard to beat the price of $100 if you can't scale. It really does make sense to produce these units at a centralized place, ie at quanta facilities, probably the worlds largest and most effecient laptop manufacturer.

The thing with open systems is this : it is a matter of practicality, not a matter of idealism.

There is a whole body of open software available. If you can run a C compiler on your platform, then you can run a whole lot of software (which might need tailoring).

Choosing for something closed that runs now is short sighted. Yes, it has a short term advantage, but a long term disadvantage. My experience has taught me with several kinds of closed systems, that they might solve short term problems, but you have

The Classmate isn't running XP Professional, but XP Embedded, which gives you a stripped-down version of XP, including only the components you want (in great detail). It doesn't have to have anything it won't need. Though with Windows, you get to run Windows software *and* open-source software. The only reason to go with anything else would be licensing costs, not functionality-wise.

You know what? I completely disagree with you. You are assuming that once you learn ONE os at an early age it is set in stone. As if you couldn't learn to use another. Or even two or three. You underestimate kids. People who grew up in the 80s know for a fact that this isn't true. My school's computer lab had 3 NEC with some kind of propietary os that we all learned to make BASIC programs. Then came the Apple IIe's and we had to learn DOS 3.2 and 3.3. My mother bought me my first computer, an Apple//c, and then I had to learn ProDOS. Next there was a Mac plus on which I ran MAC-OS 4 thru 6. Then a Mac quadra 605 (system 7-8). As soon as I started working it was MS-DOS, and all the windows. Three years ago I switched to linux. It wasn't so hard mainly because I was used to switching OS's. In fact the most difficult switch was from mac to windows 3.11. I now find myself costumizing gnome to match a lot of the original mac-os functionality (although not the windows decorations). But you know it isn't that difficult for me to figure out how to make gtk and metacity themes, had it not been for those BASIC programs I made in the NEC's and the apples.
I hate that they teach children today to use powerpoint and word. The argument that it is what they will need when working is absurd. If that where true I would have been terribly hindered by my lack of knowledge of wordstar, lotus and dbase when I got my high-school degree. I learned to use computers. And I can adapt myself to computers. I think this project aims at that type of experience that will make children better computer users and not merely software consumers. By the way this I'm describing happened to me in Colombia. So the preconceived notion some of you have about the third world use some updating.

I grew up using toasters and can use any brand today. Yet I have no clue on their inner workings. A toaster is a mysterious magical "black box" to me and thats ok. I don't know what has to do with the merits of power point however.

Look, I have pretty much the same experience as you but you must also remember that those who spent the 80s and early 90s on computers were those who chose to learn computers. It didn't take long after I got my C64 to write my first hello world program. I wanted to play around with it and loved the idea of a machine I could instruct on what to do, and playing games and seeing all the cool things you could do with it. I absorbed in everything from BASIC to Tiki PCs to DOS to Windows to OS/2 because it fascin

Food for thought: If you give an OLPC to each child in the developing world (lets exclude 1st world for a moment), the majority of computer users world wide will be running Linux.

Also, I think one of the project goals was to distribute laptops which would have easy to modify "guts". These things are supposed to be a breeze to do simple programming on, and I think that will be far more valuable to these children than learning how the Start menu works. Once you establish certain computing concepts it becomes far easier to transition to other environments.

This also excludes the whole discussion of whether or not its valuable to put them on XP, especially given that XP is no longer the "current" MS OS. Soon, 1st world users will not be able to buy systems with XP; why would we sling it off onto 3rd world users?

Not to mention the security debacle it would be; how would you deploy security updates?

should we be giving them a computer that gives them the potential to learn the systems in use by a majority of the world?

The same could be said about Vista. Why doesn't the world stick with XP? Or MSDOS? Or even Multics?

Any reasoning based on the premise that because it's been used yesterday and today it should be used tomorrow and so on forever is bogus. Every change starts somewhere and the OLPC is going to be distributed to sufficient people to create their own market.

The important (for the children) part of the OLPC is not the OS that it runs, but the user interface. Something centered in activities, something that was meant for collaboration between them from the start, something that dont add complexities but let them focus in doing what they must. Behind that interface, could have been Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, DOS, whatever.Of course, that be linux had some advantages for the big people behind. Was free (cost of the whole thing was important, and maybe more importan

I find it interesting that Intel immediately jump in with "the ability to run win xp" as a major advantage. Leads me to ponder.

Here's what I ponder:

"ability to run" != "comes with"

Buying XP licenses for all those machines will about double their price, depending on how much of a volume discount MS is giving them. Maybe if MS is really, really generous, it'll only add 50% to the price. If the budget is fixed, that means somewhere between a third and half less machines are going to be distributed to children.

Remember the $3 "starter" licenses that MS announced - with XP Starter Edition and a stripped down MS Office. It'd be nice if Microsoft priced themselves out of the computer market in most of the world, but unfortunately they've decided not to. Not that a *nix system isn't obviously better than an intentionally crippled version of windows, but...

There's a law (in progress, ie: not yet approved) that would require the public offices to use (as far as possible) OS software and force them to use open formats. So in that respect, the education that kids are getting is positive and useful. Up until now, Windows was taugth. Not to mention that not every school had PCs.Also, other South American countries which are on very friendly terms with Uruguay (such as Venezuela) are too pushing OS into the public offices. In Venezuela's case, the law is in place a

Seeing as these are mostly being sold in second and third world countries where there aren't millions of people leaving school in order to work 9-5 in an office where they sit in front of a Windows PC all day, I wouldn't think that's a particularly big deal.

" . . . or should we be giving them a computer that gives them the potential to learn the systems in use by a majority of the world?"

We're talking about young students here. What system will be in use by a majority of the world a few years from now? (hint: it won't be XP)In my opinion, it is almost always a mistake to teach skill in particular technologies over teaching the fundamental ideas that allow you to think on your own and adapt to changes.

As a geek I luv computers, don't we all? But my gut tells me that tossing devices that, let's face it, require many branches of support like a species at the top of a complex food chain, will be about as successful as tossing paper money on them, them being poor children.

Don't misundertand, this isn't the arguement that we shouldn't travel to space, or not do other things, because somewhere in the world is a child is starving. No, my concern is for accomplishing the goal of this project, which I assume is, to help them prosper. You know, teach a man to fish instead of just giving him one fish.

Computers are excellent at doing many types of tasks, but lousy at others. People aren't poor because they don't have a laptop. In fact, I think most studies have shown that laptops actually have little or a negative impact on helping children learn. No, people are poor, in our current world and time, are poor because they don't have opportunity. Opportunity to exchange their own effort, work, or goods with other people.

Why? Because either someone prevents them, by means of a gun and or a system that makes it impossible to be free to do such exchanges. Sometimes I think people toss that word around like it's some etheral ideal that everyone knows they are supposed to say they value, but then go right on and act in contray ways. No, freedom is a very very very important ideal, an ideal that cannot be replaced by a 100 dollar laptop.

> In fact, I think most studies have shown that laptops actually have little or a negative impact on helping children learn.

Most of the failures reported so far are due to children using the computers to browse porn. If porn wasn't illegal and taboo for adults, then children wouldn't be so interested in it. I think porn reform is needed first before computers can be introduced to schools.

I think porn reform is needed first before computers can be introduced to schools.

Fear of porn is definitely going to set back education by years, but waiting for things to change is just going delay education further. Just give the damn kids the computers, and (optionally) yell at them if you catch them with naked chicks on the screen.

I agree with you in part, regarding the studies showing laptop aided development in developed countries has little, or even negative impact. However in areas where there is no ready access to technology, and other teaching materials such as books are expensive, then the concept of having a cheap way of distributing content to children and of giving them access to technology may actually be very beneficial. Although this shouldn't be seen as the only thing we should be doing to close the digital divide.

Access to experts in kids fields of interest (I remember one of my elementary school friends becoming pen pals with a zoo keeper from our local zoo)

Access to training tools for teachers

Unfiltered access to a variety of sources discussing history, geography, politics and economics (that's to help towards the path to freedom -- people must know that freedom can exist in order to fight for it)

All of those things can be fulfilled by a series of networked laptops for kids, at a much lower cost than doing things the dead-tree way. People will have to make some serious investment on the software side of this project for it to work. But, it could work. And if it does, it will seriously turn the world upside-down. Not because they have a laptop, but instead because they have access to textbooks, communication, and unfiltered information.

Give one of these laptop to every TEACHER in a given country. People often forget that the teachers are just as poor as the children. If a teacher can have access to up to date curriculum that would be awesome in itself. The possiblities for teachers to swap ideas and support one another is also endless. The quality of teaching could increase immeasurably.

The safer and more economically viable a country is, the less the brain drain will occur. When most citizens in a country are educated and have an understanding of and belief in freedom, won't that country be able to negotiate well on the international market? Won't that lead to the country eventually being able to pay their professionals decent wages?The problem now is that only the richest educate their children well, and those children seek economic stability elsewhere. When the majority of the populatio

I doubt that they have as much corporate "encouragement" to stay using copyrighted dead-tree textbooks. The movement towards English-language, open, software-based textbooks has been slow and decentralized.

Hopefully, these countries have budgeted textbook creation as part of their operating costs for the OLPC project. If not, you're right, it will fail just like it has in the U.S.

Look at the impact CELLPHONES are having in developing countries. Its exploding everywhere, SE Asia, Africa. Cellphones are changing millions of lives in significant and simple ways,

They allow people to communicate, simple but for most who earn a $1 a day or less this was previously impossible.

They are spurring innovation in Banking, micro-finance, and enabling new kinds of transactions

Text messaging, SMS, is still the cheapest way to get a message across - be it a pricing report for harvested crops, or a simple message to a family member in an isolated village.

True that developing countries are plagued by tyrants, corrupted governments, and other nasty people, but when people are given the power to communicate they can mobilize and share information, get organized, and that is real power.

Access to the internet is the obvious next step. "FREEDOM" just doesn't materialize, people have to fight for it, and in order to do that they need the tools. Even if there is one OLPC laptop in a village, that single laptop will open MANY doors to many people who previously had no opportunity or voice.

I've heard that the plan was to put the textbooks in the laptops, which, if done, is economically viable. Each textbook is around 200 pesos (8USD), each year you require 4 of them (sometimes more) and there's 5 years of schooling. That sums up to 160USD. The laptops may be a bit more expensive now, but I think the plan is to "recycle" them (once kid gets out of school, give the pc to a new student). Also, you're getting other advantages that plain old textbooks don't give, like net access, PC education, gam

I think most studies have shown that laptops actually have little or a negative impact on helping children learn

Fret not, as Nicholas Negroponte has stated "It's an education project, not a laptop project."

This is not some new hair brained lets throw laptops at 3rd world countries plan as many try to make it out to be. If you do a little research into the project you'll find that it was started years ago with various test implementations using standard laptops running Windows software. The OLPC is an extens

Now for just a little more the government can hire half the Uruguayan software industry to create fabulous educational software in collaboration with talented teachers and researchers, and since they are the first then they can release for free or even sell it (making money to invest back into educational software development while also being cheaper for another country to buy than make themselves).

It would be fabulous to release that as open source, if only the programmers and others involved in making it can be somehow reimbursed or have their living expenses paid for which might not be a bad idea either. Also, it would be probably very cheap compared to first world rates. I'm thinking computers can be much more useful in education and maybe this will even result in a computer-based, self-paced learning curriculum in many languages.

Maybe a lot of geeks here wish that sort of thing was available when they were in grade school. If it could be released as open source then talented kids could learn in more depth or follow their interests, or even learn in more than one language at once, so instead of the problems that come from skipping grades there could be perhaps ordinary lessons plus self-paced directed or inquiry-based learning. Not just browsing wikipedia but enough for a child to learn from.

A similar thing written at adult level would also be fabulously useful. It appears some of this idea is in the encyclopedia of life that just won funding based on a "wish" speech at TED. The first thing needed is linux hacking for elementary school kids. Maybe before that an auto-restore, auto-backup extra partition?

I saw this institutional video someone posted here, with the kids playing with their new $150 laptops.

That video was disturbing. First, why did every shot consist of like 15 kids crowded around one tiny laptop? Isn't this supposed to be "one laptop per child"? Second, why did every shot focus on giant external mice? Aren't these things supposed to have awesome touchpads? Wouldn't that increase the price from $150 to like $160?

This end may not always be a bad thing. I'm sure allot of slashdotters (I would certainly be included in this group) got their start into learning about computer hardware by asking just such a question as a child.

This end may not always be a bad thing. I'm sure allot of slashdotters (I would certainly be included in this group) got their start into learning about computer hardware by asking just such a question as a child.

Maybe you didn't read their tagline: "ONE laptop per child". One. Not a couple of hundred.

When I was a kid and took apart something, it could officially be called garbage. I gained knowledge all right (that I better not do that again).

My first computer in the classroom was an apple ][, followed by the various 68000 based macs. If I can play math, language, and geographical games on a low end 6502 or 68000 based machine, surely to god kids can learn today with "only a P2." And none of them ran Win XP either.

I know why Intel spreads the myth that you need power to use a computer. They're in the business of pushing high end processors that most people don't need.

I know why Intel spreads the myth that you need power to use a computer. They're in the business of pushing high end processors that most people don't need.

A more powerful computer will be more useful. The "myth" that you're spreading is that no-one will ever want to do anything unexpected with their computer - computers are general purpose tools, and you rarely know everything that you might want to do with one when you get it.

But... that doesn't change the fact that the XO is probably strictly better th

Hint: There is a reason why Intel and AMD are focusing strongly on improving their idle power usage. And it ain't because they have nothing better to do.Most of the time my E6600 sits here at 1.6Ghz even with firefox, audacious, etc going. For MOST of my tasks the box is just plain too fast. Of course, as a software developer I do put it through it's paces. Point is for most people who read webpages, listen to music, watch a movie, whatever, processors are VASTLY overpowered for what they do. Not ever

I find it disturbing that such focus is put on third world children when a significant number of children in the U.S. and other developed countries do not have access to a similiar device or good educational opportunities. It's a shared failure of Western governments and projects such as the OLPC to favor others over their own for the sake of political correctness and what I can only describe as some sort of institutional guilt over priviliege combined with well-intentioned, but nonetheless clueless, naivete.

When it comes to technical leadership, it is sort of like the airline safety instructions you get - if the airmasks drop down, secure your own first so you can help others without losing your ability to do so. Think about it while you go to mod me down.

What a truly disturbing point of view - helping a child in Uruguay (in some unspecified way) 'makes the world a better place', but helping a child in Compton (in some unspecified way) 'makes the United States more dominant'. Even worse, you probably don't even realize how racist that sounds.

I find it disturbing that such focus is put on third world children when a significant number of children in the U.S. and other developed countries do not have access to a similiar device or good educational opportunities. It's a shared failure of Western governments and projects such as the OLPC to favor others over their own for the sake of political correctness and what I can only describe as some sort of institutional guilt over priviliege combined with well-intentioned, but nonetheless clueless, naivet

This is a cheap hardware project, not the world police force. OLPC is no more responsible for the US government not giving a shit about its citizens any more than it is responsible for the other corrupt third-world governments.

There's one huge advantage for governments who go with the intel classmate and run XP - it's likely that the Gates Foundation will give grants to the governments to buy them as long as they don't run Linux. Watch and see.

Just put a 10$ 1GB SD card in the SD card slot under the screen, and the OLPC can boot into a light, customized 3$ Windows XP OS.
Microsoft has been working for the past year on adapting a Windows XP light version to run on such cheaper hardware, the OLPC hardware specs are totally sufficient for running a thinned down version of Windows XP. Microsoft certainly has the means and the will to provide such Windows XP on a 1GB SD card option, which each child could after some time and as SD card prices drop get one, and have a choice a boot-up for which OS to use.

Hi! I am the mantainer of the blog referred in the article, http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com./ [olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com] First of all, I'd like to invite you to see some pictures of the launching of the project in my last post [blogspot.com] (I decided to include some contents in english on the blog).

I have seen many interesting comments here. Many of them are part of a discussion that exceeds uruguayan experience, as they are the technological apsects (using XO, Classmate, ITP-C...? [blogspot.com] using laptops or desktops...?), educational aspects (which contents to use, if all the children will be interested) and, obviously, economical aspects (is it worth spending so much money?... how much will the project really cost?). I just would like to make some comments:
- Not only the educational aspects of the project have to be analyzed. The project also changes the "digital gap", taking into the information society many children and their families.
- The technologies used are not as important as the agreements we have to do for using these technologies. License costs and their renewals, as well as intelectual properties of the contents generated must get up in the table.
- The real effect of a project like this will not be seen in the next days, months, neither in a few years. Maybe in 10 years we will be able to start doing a comprehensive analysis of results. Now we are making "futurology", so it is normal having different views. What is important in this step is the conviction and honesty of stakeholders to try to make things as good as possible.

"They shouldn't spend *any* money on education until all poverty is solved"

Not so fast, let's see how this works out first, OK?

Education is the greatest basis for fighting poverty in a 3rd world country. Think better educated people -> more efficient entrepreneurs / companies -> more money in the local economy -> more taxes -> better healthcare and services etc. Uruguay could possibly have just made the first step to become the next India (IT-wise)!

BUT the greatest thing is that with more literate & educated people, the less likely they will endure another dictator [imdb.com]. And that should happen *everywhere* else, not just in Uruguay!
Without education, you could wait forever for all poverty to be solved.

Isn't the idea that instead of constantly giving them fish, we *teach* them to fish?

I think you have a wide education (educación) because of your words (palabras), I see how educated you are. You can do a more in deep research before you write (escribir). Uruguay has an excellent level of education, I studied in the Uruguay's public education system, it doesn't means that I'm more educated than people like you but a little bit more respectful.
No se, pero al parecer a los yankees les falta un poquito de cultura y respeto por los demás.
Sin ánimos de ofender a nadie.
Saludos

I'm disgusted to see that you are wasting time on slashdot while there are still homeless people in places like Africa and America.You shouldn't spend *any* time on slashdot until all poverty is solved throughout the whole world.

Fun aside.If the 14 people at OLPC uses there time on educating the childen of the world,then that is what they have chosen to do and not for you or everyone else to decide.

If you would like to start the "one house per child" project then go ahead,don't wait for anyone to start it for you.

Nature Magazine has a cautious news story [nature.com] lauding the OLPC while pointing out what nay sayers observe. One concern is that the way they are achieving the price point is to push the marketing, distribution, and maintenence cost onto the buyers (the governements) and that they need to reach scale quickly, which while it probably will happen governments are demurring. If this roll out is a success it may be a big shot in arm convincing the hesitant governments. Perhaps the easiest places to get support will be one-man governments; Would-be "populist" quasi-dictators like Qudaffi is a prime candidate for a large purchase.

There's also an interesting interview [fosdem.org] with Ron Minnich of LinuxBios, who points out that the OLPC will be a major roll out for OLPC in end user hands (rather than embeds). He says that LinuxBios enables such insanely better power management than traditional bios that it's going to knock everyone's socks off. It will wake instantaneously and conserve power.

Even when operating this thing is miserly: 2 watts.

One of the suggested alternatives in the Nature Article put forward by a prominent nay sayer in India (who will not be going forward with OLPC) are that set-top style web-based apps are a better idea. I Don't actually see how. All the set top boxes currently are more expensive, don't have a screen, the screen will be too far away for it's resolution, and they don't have Key boards. So the OLPC looks pretty good.

The OLPC will automatically detect networks. I wonder if Ron Minnich managed to slide in his other project which is BPROC/Clustermatic which is used at Labs like Los Alamos to create high performance self configuring clusters with minimal cluster operating system overhead. Such a system could provide some incredible computing horsepower despite the low performance of the individual nodes.

Another thing I wonder about is printers. In the developed world anyone who can afford a computer can afford or get access to a printer so paper has never really been factored out of computing. INdeed computers if anything, are an organized way to generate more not less paper docs. In the countries using OLPC, printers won't be available. We may see the rise of paperless computing finally.

i'm not sure how well a dictator would take to having an educated and/or freely speaking populace. the stereotypical dictator would _not_ want olpc's in the country, unless the internet was also controlled. i'm sure there's the possibility of a benevolent dictator, but i don't know how often that happens...

Yep, we're 3rd world, but we don't exactly live in huts and eat each other. In fact, Uruguay already has a very strong software exports sector (in fact I run an indie game dev company) and Internet access is ubiquitous. I guess the über hackers are already wrecking havoc;)

No, really, ask Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay [wikipedia.org] ), most people are surprised to learn that Uruguay is very different to the typical first world stereotype of "third world", "south american" and "latin" people.

Seriously, are you nuts? Did you notice that Uruguay is not part of the United States, and has no tradition to sue everybody for anything? Parents in the rest of the world would not sue the webcam manufacturer because their kid used that brand while prostituting him/herself. They would be able to admit their own failure at parenting, which is exactly what it is. So yes bad things will happen, even with these devices around. Some bad things may even happen more often with them around. But in no way can you b